Best way to convert an ArrayList to a string

Answer 1

The below code may help you,

List list = new ArrayList();
list.add("1");
list.add("2");
list.add("3");
String str = list.toString();
System.out.println("Step-1 : " + str);
str = str.replaceAll("[\\[\\]]", "");
System.out.println("Step-2 : " + str);

Output:

Step-1 : [1, 2, 3]
Step-2 : 1, 2, 3

Answer 2

For seperating using tabs instead of using println you can use print

ArrayList<String> mylist = new ArrayList<String>();

mylist.add("C Programming");
mylist.add("Java");
mylist.add("C++");
mylist.add("Perl");
mylist.add("Python");

for (String each : mylist)
{       
    System.out.print(each);
    System.out.print("\t");
}

Answer 3

If you don't want the last \t after the last element, you have to use the index to check, but remember that this only "works" (i.e. is O(n)) when lists implements the RandomAccess.

List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
list.add("one");
list.add("two");
list.add("three");

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(list.size() * apprAvg); // every apprAvg > 1 is better than none
for (int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++) {
    sb.append(list.get(i));
    if (i < list.size() - 1) {
        sb.append("\t");
    }
}
System.out.println(sb.toString());

Answer 4

List<String> stringList = getMyListOfStrings();
StringJoiner sj = new StringJoiner(" ");
stringList.stream().forEach(e -> sj.add(e));
String spaceSeparated = sj.toString()

You pass to the new StringJoiner the char sequence you want to be used as separator. If you want to do a CSV: new StringJoiner(", ");

Answer 5

In one Line : From [12,0,1,78,12] to 12 0 1 78 12

String srt= list.toString().replaceAll("\\[|\\]|,","");

Answer 6

In Java 8 or later:

String listString = String.join(", ", list);

In case the list is not of type String, a joining collector can be used:

String listString = list.stream().map(Object::toString)
                        .collect(Collectors.joining(", "));